Venison Meatballs are an easy, low fat alternative to beef! These Venison Meatballs can be baked, or air fried to make them even healthier!
If you have been following BCC for any length of time, you will know how much we love our venison! Roughly half of our meat consumption is, in fact, venison.
For this reason, we needed to learn how to, consistently, make tasty dishes with venison. There is a learning curve, no doubt.
But thankfully, we have really succeeded in the journey to create delicious, different venison recipes!
Venison is much healthier than beef or pork
It is because venison has so little fat, that some dishes with venison benefit from adding a bit of fattier meat to it. These meatballs are one of those cases.
As a general rule of thumb, slow cooked venison recipes do not require extra fat. Faster cooking techniques, (except the loins and tenderloins) require some additional fat content.
Venison has half of the fat of pork or beef. See this article for more information.
If you have a hunter, or in our case hunters in the family, it can be hard to find different recipes to make so you’re not eating the same things over and over again. Meatballs are one of our favorite. We find we prefer the taste to even ground beef meatballs.
This recipe for venison meatballs would work equally well with other wild game meat. Elk, moose, caribou or antelope, will all work as they all belong to the ungulate family.
What you need
- ground deer meat
- ground pork
- grated onion -or substitute onion powder
- grated garlic – or substitute garlic powder
- eggs
- milk
- bread crumbs – fresh or dried will both work to bind the balls together
- parsley – fresh or dried
- oregano – fresh or dried
- thyme – fresh or dried
How to Make Venison / Deer Meatballs
- Mix venison and pork
- Grate onion directly over meat to capture the juices.
- About 2 tablespoons.
- Grate garlic too.
- whisk eggs in bowl.
- Add eggs, breadcrumbs and spices to ground meat. If making meatballs for Italian sauce, add Parmesan cheese.
- Mix gently, but well.
- Form into balls. An ice cream scoop or cookie scoop works well to portion meat.
- Bake at 350°F 40 minutes, until golden and internal temperature is over 165°F
You can easily make these meatballs gluten free by using gluten free breadcrumbs or crushed corn flakes, corn or rice chex or cornmeal.
The air fryer works amazingly well for meatballs too! I even prefer the meatballs air fried now! They get crispier! See my post for Air Fryer Meatballs.
You can also fry these meatballs over medium-high heat.
How to serve them
- top a big bowl of spaghetti or you favorite pasta and spaghetti sauce.
- use them for meatball subs with added sauce and melted mozzarella cheese.
- make appetizer meatballs with your favorite sauces.
Meal Prep tip: Make a double batch and place in bag and put them in the freezer, before cooking, for an easy dinner another night.
Other delicious venison recipes
- Corned Venison Recipe
- Venison Teriyaki Stir Fry
- Venison Enchiladas
- Venison Breakfast Sausage
- Venison Stew.
For all of the tasty venison recipes on Binky’s Culinary Carnival, look here.
More ground venison recipes
- venison burger
- venison chili
- shepherd’s pie
- ground venison tacos
- venison meatloaf
Tools I Use to Make Venison Meatballs
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Want to learn more about How to Cook Venison? Don’t miss our awesome, Ultimate Guide! Complete with 65 FREE Recipes from some of the top venison recipe developers in the world!
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Enjoy. And have fun cooking!
Venison Meatballs
Ingredients
- 1.5 pounds ground venison meat
- 1/2 pound pork, ground
- 1/2 small Onion or substitute onion powder
- 3 cloves garlic or substitute garlic powder
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup fresh breadcrumbs
- 3 tablespoon Milk
- 1.5 teaspoon parsley
- 1/2 teaspoon oregano, dried
- 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt or sea salt
- 2 teaspoons black pepper
Instructions
- Grate onion and garlic right over bowl with the meat in it.
- Whisk eggs. Add the rest of ingredients to bowl and mix, gently, but well by hand.
- Form meatballs. For dinner meatballs, portion meat with ice cream scoop. For appetizer meatballs, portion with cookie scoop.
- Place on ungreased, rimmed baking sheet, so the meatballs are not touching.
- Bake in 350°F for 35-40 minutes, until browned and temperature is over 165°F.
- Serve with your favorite sauce.
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MarkG
I added some grated Parmesan to the meat along with some grated frozen butter ( 2tbsp) because I didn’t have the pork.
Two comments:
1. If you can grate an onion without dropping tears into the bowl, you’re a better human than I.
2. Two tsp of pepper is too much.
Beth Neels
Well, if you had used the pork too, there would have been more volume so it may not have been too much pepper. You should always salt and pepper per your taste, in the future. Lol on grating the onion. If you get a strong onion, you’re right. You could always grate it with your food processor too.
sandy
I make these fairly often. Tonight will be my sixth time since finding the recipe. ONLY reason for 4 stars is the adding pork. I have never added the pork. We eat mostly venison in our home. The only time I’ve added pork sausage to my venison is on occasion our deer burgers for something different and when I make homemade breakfast sausage. Meatballs, I have never needed to add any other meat. Otherwise I use the recipe exact.
Beth Neels
I’m glad you like them Sandy. We like just of pork for a little extra moisture. Thanks for letting me know.
Elizabeth
Is the parsley fresh or dried? Thank you and so looking forward to making this recipe.
Beth Neels
You can use either. The quantity listed is for dried parsley. But certainly fresh is better. Just double the amount of fresh parsley. We love these meatballs! Let me know how you like them Elizabeth.
Geraldine Linkous
I mixed a half a pound of ground beef in my venison worked out great with your recipe made a lot and going to freeze them take them out when I need them thank you so much
Beth Neels
Yes. Sometimes I add ground pork or beef to stretch the recipe. I’m so glad you liked them Geraldine. Thanks for letting me know!
Marg
I made these last night ! They were delicious! I used them in a tomato sauce and served with pasta ! I will definitely be making them again thank you
Beth Neels
Great! I’m so glad that you liked them Marg! Thanks for letting me know.
Nancy
These sound great, want to make tonight but I don’t have any ground pork. Think it will be fine to omit it
Beth Neels
Do you have anything else with a bit of fat content? Maybe some lard, or steak fat? If not add some olive oil to the mixture to give them some fat content. Let me know how you like them Nancy!
Setareh
Can I omit the milk as I am lactose intolerant?
Beth Neels
Absolutely! Use any milk substitute that you like. Almond milk, cashew milk, soy, rice. Any of these will work. Thanks for checking out the recipe Setareh! Let me know how you like them.
Lisa
We made these meatballs today. They were fabulous! I baked and then tossed in Apricot BBQ sauce. The family loved them! We will definitely be making this recipe again!!
Thanks
Beth Neels
Oh great! I’m so glad you liked the recipe! That BBQ sauce sounds amazing too! I will have to try that! Thanks so much Lisa!
Holly Dmyterko
I’m wondering if I can freeze them first and cook them later?
Beth Neels
Yes Holly! You absolutely can freeze them before cooking. Just freeze them on a cookie sheet, until they are frozen. Then vacuum pack or place them in baggies and you can pull out as many as you like and bake them from frozen. It will take them longer, it depends on how large they are but at least 15-20 minutes. Just bake until browned and they register 165°F internal temperature! Thanks for your question!
Anicka Rodgers
These meatballs are fabulous!! Wish I had ground venison all year long!!
Beth Neels
Thank you Anicka! I am so glad you liked them! It is always a sad day in our house when we run out of venison for the year!
Susan
Sounds delicious! AND healthy! I love that you bake these. My hubby is a big fan of venison but I’ve never made meatballs with deer. We’ll have to try this recipe out! Thx!
Binky
Thank you Susan! I think you will really like them!
Mikayla
These sound delicious! I was gonna make these with some zoodles for my meal prep dinner next week. I was wondering if it is 104cal per meatball or per serving? Thank you!!
Beth Neels
It is an estimate per serving Mikayla. Thanks for checking out the recipe, let me know how you like them!
Corina Blum
I love venison! I love the sound of the flavours in these! So delicious!
Binky
Thanks so much Corina! That is so kind!
Brian Jones
I love cooking with venison, it is hellish expensive in these parts but I’m worth it 😉 Looking forward to trying this.
Binky
Is it? That is too bad! I have found it on Amazon, but it is about $14 per pound here in the US!
Ramona
This recipe sounds so tasty. I’ve never made venison meatballs. Recipe saved and cannot wait to make these beauties.
Binky
Thank you Ramona! They are so good! I think you will love them!
Jacqueline Debono
I love venison but have never tried venison meatballs. Such a great idea! Going to pin for later!
Binky
Thank you Jacqueline! I hope you try them soon!
Sonia
This looks and sounds super delicious and inviting! Very well explained.! Will save it to try it soon 🙂
Binky
Thank you so much, Sonia! I hope you like them!
Jacqueline Meldrum
I have a craving for tagliatelle now. I think that’s dinner decided then 🙂
Binky
It’s so easy and delicious! Thank you Jacqueline!
Lisa Bynum
YES!! My husband did not have a successful hunting season this year. Thankfully, his uncle gave us some ground venison. I love using it for meatballs. Can’t wait to try your recipe.
Binky
Oh, that’s too bad! I’m glad your uncle was generous enough to share! Thanks so much Lisa!
sue | the view from great island
This is fascinating, I love it! My husband is a big fan of trying new and exciting meats, and I know he would flip for these meatballs. Where would I go to find venison? A specialty butcher?
Binky
Some of our better grocers carry it. I have also found some on Amazon. The only problem is you have to buy 10 pounds. Thanks for your query Sue!
Bobby
I have been trying to find a venison meatball recipe that I like for ages! Thanks for finally getting to these meatballs! I don’t like all of the purchased ingredients in most recipes, like Worcestershire and ketchup, etc! I loved the simplicity of this recipe and we all LOVE them! I did add the Parmesan cheese, as you suggested and that gives a great flavor! Thanks!
Binky
Oh, great Bobby! I’m so pleased! I know it has taken be a few years to get these meatballs on BCC! Better late than never! 🙂 I still have so many more venison recipes to go! There is only so much time in a day! Thank you!